Hiking on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau in the Spring is quite a different experience from hiking during the

summer. For one thing, the leaves from the previous Autumn are thick and haven’t been flattened and cleared

from the trails by hundreds of hikers yet. In places, on a trail with which one is not familiar, a hiker has to be

careful to not lose the trail entirely. For instance, can you say, with certainty, that you know which is the trail in

the photo below, or even if the trail is included in the picture?

The trail to the Virgin

Falls is a very popular

hike. Many people choose

to bring their camping

gear and stay the night.

And lots of people who

choose to hike in and out

in a day WISH that they

had camped out and

waited until they were

rested up before tackling

the hike back out.

The problem is that you don’t realize how tough the hike out is, until you do it once. This is one of those trails

that doesn’t seem so bad by the time you get all the way to the falls at the end of the trail, but coming out is

three times harder: “It didn’t seem like I was going downhill so much on the way in!”

It’s uphill all the way out...even the parts of the trail that are downhill are uphill!! But when you haven’t yet

done it, you tend not to pay enough credit to the warning that is posted at the head of the trail:

I’m a guy that likes to travel light. I even grudgingly carry my camera when I want to document a new

hike. But I’ll readily admit that being weighed down with extra water for this round-trip is really worth it.

The other thing is that, with the trees not yet filled out with leaves, you actually get a much wider and further view

of the country through which you are hiking. I really enjoy that aspect of it. I’ll include occasional comparison shots

from last summer to illustrate what I mean.